Author Topic: Parking fines rumpus opens door to appeals - Allerdale council  (Read 1189 times)

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Parking fines rumpus opens door to appeals

A tribunal's criticism of council parking penalty notices could have major implications for Workington motorists wishing to challenge fines.

Allerdale council revealed yesterday that it was reviewing the wording of its penalty charge notice after comments by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

It follows a successful appeal by Workington resident Mark Jenkinson against six parking fines issued to him in the town centre.

The ruling means that hundreds of other motorists could follow in the footsteps of Mr Jenkinson, 32, of Milburn Street, who was given tickets for parking on single yellow lines at Upton Street.

The appeal tribunal highlighted that the parking charge notice issued to Mr Jenkinson was unclear about whether the fine was being enforced by Allerdale council or the county council.

The district council manages on-street parking on behalf of the county authority.

Tribunal adjudicator M F Kennedy said it was not clear whether the council enforcing the fine was entitled to enforce it.

Traffic regulation order extracts failed to show that there was a controlled parking zone on Upton Street, he added.

He said there was the potential for “procedural impropriety” if the enforcement authority, stated to be Cumbria County Council, was dealing with representations by reference to a different authority’s policy.

He said: “In other words, they may be fettering their discretion.

“The absence of the proper delegation authority, or indeed the traffic regulation order in a meaningful form, means that there is considerable doubt as to which council is enforcing and whether it is entitled to enforce.”

An Allerdale council spokeswoman said yesterday: “We are now reviewing the points raised by the adjudicator, in particular his advisory note regarding the wording of the penalty charge notice.

“The appeal was allowed on a factual basis relating to the controlled parking zone.

“The points raised by the adjudicator regarding the wording of the penalty charge notice were advisory and we are reviewing this.

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“Each challenge or appeal against a penalty charge notice will be treated upon its own merits.”

Mr Jenkinson has spent four years trying to highlight issues with the parking regime in Workington.

In November he launched an online petition against the county council’s planned on-street parking charges.

He took his appeal to tribunal after being unsuccessful at a formal appeal with Allerdale council last year. The appeal was into six parking fines issued against him between April 2 and May 10, 2013.

Mr Jenkinson said that 15 other fines over the years had been cancelled on technicalities before they got to the appeal stage.

He said: “This has proved the things I have been saying to the council about irregularities in parking enforcement.

“Had I not contested six penalty charge notices at once the council would still be cancelling them before they got to this point on various technicalities.

“If the authorities insist on penalising shoppers and motorists they must do it to the letter of the law.

“Some of these issues go back more than 10 years to the decriminalisation of parking enforcement.

“In that time how many hundreds, if not thousands, of motorists have been affected?”


http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/other/parking-fines-rumpus-opens-door-to-appeals-1.1124645

 


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